236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN. 



[Adopted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 9, 1900.] 



To the Secrelarij of the Stale Board of Ayriculttire. 



Sir: — The third report of the librarian is herewith pre- 

 sented. The past year has witnessed the completion and 

 publication of the catalogue of the library authorized by the 

 Board at its last annual meeting. Five hundred copies were 

 printed, of which one hundred copies have been bound and 

 distributed. It is suggested that provision be made for bind- 

 ing and distributing the remaining copies. It is believed 

 that the catalogue will do good and will be found useful in 

 a variety of ways and by various classes of people. The 

 head of the agricultural department of a neighboring State, 

 acknowledging the receipt of a copy, wrote: "It is a val- 

 uable publication, and I hope to make use of it in arranging 

 the library which I am endeavoring to start in this State. 

 There has been no efibrt made here to provide an agricult- 

 ural library, although the department has been in existence 

 for many years." 



Library work for agriculture is to be discussed in an ar- 

 ticle iu the Year Book of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture for 1899, and it has been the privilege and pleas- 

 ure of this oflSce to assist in supplying material for this 

 article. 



The "Agriculture of Massachusetts" still continues to 

 make friends, and as agricultural knowledge is spread abroad 

 by means of and through agricultural organizations and in- 

 terests of various kinds and character, these volumes are 

 more and more appreciated by progressive agriculturists. 

 On the one subject of " dairying" the late secretary of this 

 Board has recently and truly said : "In the annual volumes 

 * Agriculture of Massachusetts ' for the last twelve years may 



